“Don’t bother,” Daniel said as he rose to his feet. “I need to get back to the shop.” He said his goodbyes all around, grabbed a doughnut with a wink, and headed out.
Jesse eyed Uncle Mark. “So.”
Their uncle raised a brow.
“If the Coleman genes bred true, you’re here to ask a favour. Basing this on the fact that you showed up with bribe material.” Jesse grinned.
Mark leaned forward, elbow resting on his knee as he met Jesse’s gaze evenly. “If the Coleman genes bred true, then you’d know a man doesn’t need to bribe anyone to succeed. You’ve obviously had to connive your way out of a mess of trouble far too many times in your life.”
Blake rubbed a hand across his mouth to hide his smile.
Jesse leaned back, but if anything, his grin got only bigger. “I like you. You’re nearly as cocky as me.”
This time Blake couldn’t control himself. He laughed, the sound escaping like a donkey bray. He shook a finger at Jesse before turning his attention to the older man. “Uncle Mark, what can I do for you? And thank you for the doughnuts—it’s a treat.”
“You’re welcome.” Mark spoke to Blake, but his gaze lingered on Jesse. “I wondered what the procedure was for building on Coleman land. I know this one and his twin have fairly new homes on SP land.”
Blake had wondered when this might come up and had even discussed it with Mike recently, to be prepared. “Until the amalgamation, it was up to the individual families. Now, I’d suggest you build on your own personal land, but somewhere it makes sense so as to not limit our future land uses.”
“So no dropping a place in the middle of prime grazing land?”
Jesse grinned, licking chocolate from his fingers. “Oh, you can build there, but you’re going to have mooing neighbours up close and personal off and on throughout the year as we move the herds around.”
Blake crumpled up a piece of paper off his desk and threw it at Jesse’s head. “Hush,” he ordered before nodding at Uncle Mark. “If you’re thinking of building, one spot would be somewhere close to the rental—I mean your original house, where Becky and Trevor are, or…”
He got to his feet. Mark joined him, and they walked over to the maps to examine the entire Coleman holdings.
Jesse joined them there as well. He tapped his finger on the corner near the junction of four ranches. “This spot would work. Gabe’s new place is here. I’ve heard that Lee and Rachel are thinking about building sometime soon as well, and there’s a great building site on this Moonshine corner. You’d end up with houses close to each other but not on top of each other, spread between Angel, Moonshine, and…whatever we’re going to call your land, Uncle Mark.”
Mark’s chin dipped slowly, his mouth curving into a smile. “That’s not a bad idea.”
“I’ll put out feelers, make sure nobody objects, but I don’t think anyone will.” Blake eased back, examining his uncle a little closer. “Feeling good about staying around, then? Good enough to think about building?”
“Lots of things going well,” Mark agreed, still staring at the map. “If I don’t use Coleman money, is there any objection to me getting started sooner than later?”
Blake shook his head. “Like I said, give me a few days, but it’s your land.”
“And so far, you’re not an asshole.” Jesse danced out of the way before Blake could land a solid punch on his shoulder. “We’re all thinking it.”
“You’re such a jerk,” Blake offered.
“Dick.”
Mark snickered, jamming his hat back on his head offering a chin dip. “On that note, I’ll be off. Give me a shout if you do have any concerns, Blake, and otherwise I’ll let you know once I’ve made a decision on the building site.”
Then he was gone, and Blake was down to just Jesse, who was going through the doughnuts as if he hadn’t eaten for days.
Blake gave him a deliberate knock on the head as he marched past. “You were right on the edge of tipping past outspoken into rude,” he warned.
Jesse lost his grin. “Shit. I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t mean to.”
Huh. Blake folded his arms over his chest. “What’s wrong?”
His younger brother dropped into a chair, legs sprawled in front of him as he glared at the nearly empty doughnut box. “That easy to read?”
“Sometimes,” Blake said softly.
This was one of the hard-learned lessons from the past years. When Jesse had left, it had nearly broken his parents. Blake had known something was wrong with his little brother. Hell, all of them had figured something was up, but none of them had known exactly what or how bad.
It had been luck in a way that had brought Jesse back, and Blake never wanted to rely on luck again.
He leaned forward, elbows on the desk. “I keep an eye on you,” he admitted. “Not in a creepy way, but I don’t want you to ever feel like we’re not listening. I don’t want you to ever feel you need to leave because you’re not being heard.”
Once again, Jesse blinked. “Jeez. You serious?”
Blake lifted his shoulders. “We’re a big family, Jesse. There’s an awful lot of sound and bother going on all the time. But you’re an important part of it, you and Dare, and we want you to stay a part of it. This is your home, here with your family. So, yeah. I’m trying to be a little more alert—although hell if I know if I’m succeeding half the time.”
Jesse swallowed hard. “Well, shit.”
Confusion struck. “Why does that sound like you’re even more upset than when you came in?”
Then the words poured out of Jesse. The job offer, the possibility of moving away from Rocky Mountain House—away from the Coleman family.
Ah, hell. Emphasizing the importance of staying in town had not been the way to go. Blake was batting a thousand when it came to poor timing. He tried his best to do a one-eighty without it feeling forced. “It sounds like an amazing opportunity.”
Jesse sighed heavily. “It is. It’s an honour and a compliment, and accepting should be a total no-brainer.” He looked up and met Blake’s eyes. “But what you said is also true. We are family, and this is our home. How can I give that up?”
“You wouldn’t be giving it up,” Blake said. “Dare, Joey, and the new baby—they’d be right there with you. You’d only be about three hours away from us, which means you’d have people invading all the time.”
But he wouldn’t be living next to his best friend and twin. He wouldn’t be dropping into the office and making Blake smile with his asinine jokes.
He wouldn’t be around for the little moments. The day-to-day connections.
Blake stood, pushing the pain in his gut back and desperately trying to come up with some wise words to share. “You don’t have to decide right now, so try not to worry about it yet. The answer will come.”
Jesse snickered. “That’s what Dare keeps saying, but it’s hanging over me. I can feel the muscles in the back of my neck tightening up every time I remember, and I remember a hell of a lot. It’s driving me up the wall.”